OMG:
Pure Idiocy. Not sell a product to someone because of their ethnicity? Ridic.
Pure Idiocy. Not sell a product to someone because of their ethnicity? Ridic.
Posted on
Monday, June 25.
You can leave your response.
June 25, 2012 at 6:50 PM
One less sale for Apple, I guess.
June 25, 2012 at 7:11 PM
do not confuse company policy with racial discrimination.
June 25, 2012 at 8:29 PM
Kind of like all those Asian restaurants around the UW plaza that only post in their respective languages. Yeah I know the feeling.
June 25, 2012 at 9:57 PM
not selling a product to someone because of their ethnicity is a personal choice...but these apple employees clearly misinterpreted the company policy..dumbfucks. the customers were americans. what fucking dumbasses these store keepers are...
June 26, 2012 at 7:51 AM
^ True true.
@2 it is racial discrimination. Apple doesn't sell stuff to Iran because of government policy. So its not apple being racist; they don't have much of a choice. However, these two girls were in AMERICA, and hence were most likely AMERICAN, and had AMERICAN citizenship. Yeah, they spoke persian, so what? They were from Iran originally, and now they have American citizenship. Hence, company policy allows the product to be sold to them.
Regardless, even if they had iranian citizenship, wtf is the problem with the sales people. They could just treat the two girls as normal human beings and sell them the product. You don't really have to follow the rules word by word all the time. As long as you're not shipping to Iran you're technically not violating any government law/company policy.
June 26, 2012 at 7:56 AM
The only non discriminatory way of not selling to people with Iranian citizenship and no other citizenship is for apple to check the passport of every customer before he/she buys something. To randomly point out someone in the crowd is discriminatory.
Of course, not selling to Iranians is silly. But as the above poster said, its government policy (sanctions on Iran). But the only way apple can ensure it doesn't sell to Iranians, without discriminating based on looks etc., is to check everyone's passport. Which won't happen. So apple can just be as reasonable as every other store in US, and sell to anyone who comes into the store, and just concern itself with not shipping to Iran.
Imagine what would happen if every store in America / other countries with sanctions against Iran had to check everyone's passport before sales? Just silly.
June 26, 2012 at 11:38 AM
It doesn't seem like anyone actually read the article. The girl was in the store buying an iPad for her Iranian uncle. It is against Apple Store policy in accordance with the American government to export their products to Iran. They cannot knowingly sell one to her if her intent is to ship it to Iran.
It is a sensational title and just another person crying discrimination when it is just simply not that case.
June 26, 2012 at 3:37 PM
^ No, the employee had no right to ask her, unless he was asking everyone. What if she didn't speak persian? What if a blonde persian went in (and yes those exist) ? what if a persian who looked like a Pakistani person went in and spoke in english? And had the same intent? The employee had NO RIGHT whatsoever to pinpoint her and ask her the questions he asked her, unless he asks everyone else.
June 26, 2012 at 3:40 PM
or what if a blonde and blue eyed caucasian went in and was planning to send the laptop to his buddy in Iran? he wouldn't get stopped , because he doesn't speak farsi (persian) ... so unless the policy was to
1. Ask for everyone's passport
2. Ask everyone for the destination of the product, and the possibility of it ending up in Iran, Syria, North Korea, or any other country the US sanctions
Unless this is the policy, the dude had no right to ask the girls anything
June 26, 2012 at 6:19 PM
@7: It says she was shopping with her uncle from Iran. It doesn't specify who the iPad was for.
Anyway, this seems like something that should come up at customs where they'll be checking your passport and whatnot, not randomly in a retail store.
June 28, 2012 at 12:44 PM
It doesn't even matter if he has an Iranian passport, American passport or other. Selling an Iran citizen a product is NOT the same as selling a product to the country of Iran. It is up to the discretion of American customs to charge or revoke such products if that Iran citizen decides to return to Iran with it.